In a WLAN, each access point rebroadcasts all multicast packets over a wireless segment. This rebroadcast occurs regardless of whether there is a subscriber unit associated with the access point that is interested in receiving the multicast packets. If none of the subscriber units associated with the access point are listening to the rebroadcast (e.g., because the subscriber units associated with the access point belong to a different multicast group), the rebroadcast is a waste of the wireless resources/bandwidth.
Thus, there exists a need to preserve wireless resources/bandwidth by allowing the access point in a WLAN to only rebroadcast a multicast packet intended for a particular multicast group over a wireless segment if there is at least one receiving subscriber unit that is a member of the particular multicast group associated with the access point.